Do you remember the blue celery experiment from the fourth grade science class? I think it was about the same time as the lumps of coal doused with Mrs. Stewart’s Blueing Agent which produced some kind of funky fungus. Well, I finally understand the blue celery lesson.

One day Miss Warring – she was a “Miss,” and one of the few lay teachers among a passel of nuns - put blue dye in a glass of water. Then she inserted a celery stalk, and over the course of a day or two the celery turned blue. Our youthful minds were delighted, and impressed enough to remember it long after “youthful” was no longer an operative word. The purpose of the demo, I think, was to show how plants take water in and distribute it through their system. If the demonstration had a grander lesson it was lost on me back then. Interestingly though, except for the funky fungus, it is the only thing I remember about fourth grade science.

I had occasion recently to utilize the blue celery experiment which proves you never know when something you learned in school might come in handy. I was engaged in a discussion about our physical bodies. Where does the body end? Is it at the boundaries of our skin? Or is there such a thing as an “extended body,” encompassing the environment that surrounds us as well. Miss Warring’s blue celery came to mind.

Take oxygen. We breathe it in, and it becomes a part of us, circulating throughout our body much like the water in celery. Just like the celery stalk we take it all in, whether it be blue dye, pollutants or particulate matter. There is no Brita filter to strain the air and separate the good stuff from the bad. Once breathed in, it is an integral part of our being whether it’s hanging out on the hair follicles in our nostrils, clogging up the lungs or being transported through the blood system.

Air isn’t the only thing we absorb - there’s food, too. We become what we eat, right? Remember the television commercial with the individuals walking around with honey buns glued to their posterior, and a doughnut encircling their waist? It’s not just the fat and sugar we metabolize, it’s the pesticides, the growth hormones, the preservatives. Preservatives? Yipes! Maybe that explains why we’re living longer - we have extended shelf life.

Consider sight. Our eyes take in the image, and our bodies process it. A pleasing sight like a beautiful sunset makes us happy, peaceful and content, while a repulsive image can sicken us to the point of rendering a physical, gut response. (We won’t discuss what the piles of clutter on my desk are doing to me at this very moment. Suffice it to say, I will be in clean up mode as soon as this piece is completed.)

It’s true for sound, too. If we hear the gentle chatter of birds, or wind brushing against trees, or soothing music, our bodies resonate with calmness and serenity. You can’t say the same after a steady barrage of car motors, leaf blowers, jack hammers, or the radio blasting from the car beside you. Think you are immune to a constant diet of televised violence and foul language? Like a sponge we soak up the discordant vibrations sending shockwaves pulsing throughout.

It operates on a subtle level, too. Ever walked into a room where emotions are strained and tension is high? Stay, and you begin to feel the same tension creep into your own body. If you can sense it, you process it. It’s sort of like second hand smoke, you suffer the consequences even if you don’t to it yourself.

Miss Warring may not have known it, but that is the true lesson of blue celery. Our bodies don’t stop at our skin. What we immerse ourselves in, becomes us. So if we’re unhappy with the world we live in, maybe we need to take a moment to review what we’ve surrounded ourselves with, because, unlike Miss Warring’s celery stalk, we do have a choice. We can dye the water any color we want - so choose carefully and selectively.